AFRICA  AND  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIAN  LATIN 

LITERATURE 


REV.  PROFESSOR  BENJAMIN  B.  WARFIELD,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Princeton,  N.  J. 


In  bringing  his  sketch  of  the  African  provinces  to  a  close,  Theodore 
Mommsen  magnifies  their  significance  for  the  histor}^  of  Christianity. 
He  represents  the  part  played  by  Africa  in  the  development  of  Chris- 
tianity as  very  distinctly  a  leading  one.  He  even  seems  to  intimate 
that  it  was  in  and  through  Africa  that  Christianity  received  its  char- 
acter as  a  world-rehgion :  it  had  its  origin,  no  doubt,  in  Syria,  but  it 
was  only  through  the  translation  in  Africa  of  its  sacred  books  into  the 
popular  language  of  the  world-empire  that  it  was  given  a  world-wide 
mission.'  There  is  some  exaggeration  here;  and  were  the  meaning 
that  the  universality  of  Christianity  was  a  contribution  to  it  of  North 
Africa,  the  exaggeration  would  be  gross.  To  Christianity,  as  to  the 
leaven  with  which  its  author  compared  it,  expansion  belongs  as  an 
inherent  quality;  and  the  instrumentalities  by  which  its  dissemina- 
tion was  accomplished  lay  at  its  hand  apart  from  any  gift  which  North 
Africa  could  bestow  upon  it.  With  far  more  insight,  though  without 
the  advantage  of  writing  after  the  event,  the  author  of  the  Book  of 
Acts  points  to  its  estabhshment  in  the  imperial  city  as  giving  the 
promise  of  its  extension  throughout  the  world. 

Nevertheless,  the  possibility  of  such  an  exaggeration  is  a  striking 
indication  of  the  great  part  which  was  actually  played  by  North 
Africa  in  the  history  of  Christianity.  In  Africa  rather  than  in  Rome 
the  roots  of  Latin  Christianity  are  actually  set.  It  is  from  African 
soil,  enriched  by  African  intellect,  watered  by  African  blood,  that  the 
tree  of  western  Christianity  has  grown  up  until  it  has  become  a  resting- 
place  for  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  If  we  abjure  speculation  upon 
what  might  have  been  on  this  or  that  supposition,  and  give  atten- 
tion purely  to  what  actually  has  been  and  is,  we  must  needs  confess 
that  there  is  a  true  sense  in  which  North  Africa  is  the  mother  of  us 

^Romische  Geschichte,  Vol.  V  (2d  ed.),  p.  657;   English  translation,  Vol.  II,  p.  373. 

95 


96  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  THEOLOGY 

all.  Christianity  is  what  it  is  today,  in  all  its  fruitful  branches  at 
least,  because  of  what  North  Africa  was  a  millennium  and  a  half  ago, 
and  because  of  what  was  done  and  thought  and  felt  there.  The  very 
language  in  which  it  still  defines  its  doctrines  and  gives  expression 
to  its  devotion  is  of  African  origin ;  and  the  doctrines  and  aspirations 
themselves  bear  ineffaceably  impressed  upon  their  very  substance 
the  African  stamp. 

The  great  part  played  by  North  Africa  in  fixing  the  type  of  western 
Christianity  was  of  course  no  mysterious  accident.  It  was  the  natural 
result  of  the  dominating  influence  of  Africa  in  the  Roman  world^ 
throughout  the  period  when  Christianity  was  establishing  itself  in 
the  West  and  fitting  itself  for  its  world-wide  mission.  This  domi- 
nating influence  was  manifested  in  every  sphere  of  life  and  was  fairly 
symbohzed  by  the  ascension  of  sons  of  Africa  to  the  imperial  throne — 
not  merely  in  such  shadows  as  Didius  Juhanus  and  Albinus,  Mac- 
rinus,  Aemihanus,  and  Memorius,  but  in  a  founder  of  a  dynasty  like 
Septimius  Severus.  The  senate  is  spoken  of  by  Fronto^  as  in  his 
day  crowded  with  Africans,  and  at  the  same  period  the  consulate 
appeared  almost  their  pecuHar  possession.''  It  was,  however,  in 
the  domain  of  the  intellectual  life  that  African  dominance  had  become 
most  apparent. 5  The  eagerness  with  which  letters  were  cultivated 
in  the  country  of  the  Atlas,  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  settlement  of 
the  provinces,  is  attested  by  the  allusions  which  Roman  writers  make 
to  the  African  taste  for  books  and  oratory.  Horace  tells  us''  that 
whenever  the  first  vogue  of  a  poem  was  over  in  Rome,  the  booksellers 
had  but  to  pack  off  "  the  remainders  "  to  Ilerda  or  Utica ;  the  Spaniard 
and  African  took  them  up  with  avidity.  Similarly  Juvenal,  despair- 
ing of  Rome  where  employment  went  by  favor,  advises  barristers  who 
had  brains  to  sell,  to  betake  themselves  to  Gaul,  or  "rather,"  says  he, 

^  Cf.  Gregorovius,  Hadrian,  English  translation,  p.  go. 

3  Epist.  ad  amic,  ii  (p.  201,  ed.  Naber;  p.  214  ed.  Niebuhr). 

4  Cf.  Monceaux,  Les  Ajricains,  p.  347. 

5  "The  Roman  province  of  Africa  had  for  centuries  taken  a  leading  place  in  the 
literature  of  the  imperial  period;  and  from  Hadrian  to  the  beginning  of  the  third  cen- 
tury it  had  set  the  fashion  even  for  Italy." — Norden,  in  Hinneberg's  Di-e  Kultur  der 
Gegcnwart,  volume  on  "Die  griechische  und  lateinische  Literatur  und  Sprache" 
(1900),  pp.  38  f. 

(>  Epist.,  i,  20,  13. 


AFRICA  AND  CHRISTIAN  LATIN  LITERATURE  97 

to  "Africa,  that  nurse  of  advocates."^  The  term  he  employs  may 
bear  a  tinge  of  contempt  in  it,  hl^e  Carlyle's  "gentleman  of  the  attor- 
ney species;"  but  the  fact  attested  is  that  the  art  of  speech  and  the 
science  of  pleading  were  cultivated  in  Africa  with  especial  zeal  and 
met  there  with  their  appropriate  reward.  Such  assiduity  in  the  pur- 
suit of  letters  could  not  fail  to  bear  fruit;  and  after  awhile,  when 
Latin  literature  was  languishing  in  Rome,  it  was  from  Africa  that  new 
life  came  flowing  in. 

There  is  a  somewhat  remote  sense,  indeed,  in  which  Africa  may  be 
said  to  have  been  midwife  to  the  birth  of  all  Latin  literature  worthy 
of  the  name.  It  was  certainly  to  the  stimulus  given  to  the  national 
life  by  the  Punic  wars  that  the  first  great  impulse  to  write  in  Latin 
must  be  traced.^  But  the  only  direct  contribution  of  Carthage  to 
that  flowering  of  undefiled  Latinity — the  elegant  and  even  exquisite 
Terence,  whose  delicate  handhng  of  the  language  became  the  model 
and  despair  of  all  subsequent  styHsts — was  of  course  only  one  of  those 
remarkable  accidents  with  which  the  history  of  letters  is  filled.  Mean- 
while this  primary  impulse,  having  blossomed  in  the  great  republic 
and  fruited  in  the  Augustan  age,  had  in  the  early  years  of  the  Chris- 
tian era  run  hopelessly  to  seed.  Rome  was  once  more,  so  far  as 
literature  was  concerned,  a  Greek  city;  and  continued  life  was  infused 
into  specifically  Latin  literature  only  by  fresh  sap  flowing  in  from  the 
provinces.  The  language  of  culture  in  Africa  too  was  at  this  epoch 
chiefly  Greek. ^  The  extensive  compilations  of  King  Juba,  whose 
half-centur}''s  reign  centers  at  the  birth  of  Christ,  were  made  in  that 
language.  Comutus,  Fronto,  Apuleius,  TcrtuUian,  the  Emperor 
Severus,  all  were  Greek  as  well  as  Latin  authors.  There  is  extant 
even  a  single  piece  of  Apuleius,  composed  partly  in  Greek  and  partly 
in  Latin.  Something  similar  occurs  in  the  Passion  oj  Perpctua  and 
Felicitas,  which  has  come  dowTi  to  us  in  both  Greek  and  Latin,  leav- 
ing the  scholars  divided  as  to  which  form  is  original,  many  holding 

y  Sat.,  \Ti,  147-49:    nutricula  causidicorum  Africa. 

*  Cf .  Simcox,  Latin  Literature,  Vol.  I,  p.  11. 

9  Monceaux  {Histoire  litteraire  de  I'Afrique  chretienne,  Vol.  I,  p.  51)  would  bid  us 
be  cautious  lest  we  overstate  this.  Cf.  also  Norden,  in  Hinneberg,  -^s  cited,  p.  376;  and 
Leclercq,  UAfrique  chretienne.  Vol.  I,  pp.  90  f.  On  the  general  subject  of  the  use  of 
Greek  in  the  West,  see  Harnack,  The  Expansion  of  Christianity,  etc..  Vol.  I,  pp.  19, 
20,  n.  i;  Vol.  II,  pp.  380,  381;  and  for  Africa,  Vol.  II,  p.  412. 


98  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  THEOLOGY 

that  both  are  original, '°  or  that  parts  of  the  original  were  in  each 
tongue."  But  the  traditions  of  Greek  culture  were  already  slowly 
dying  out  in  Africa,  as  indeed  this  bilingual  habit  itself  testifies. 
While  lettered  Rome  remained  still  essentially  Greek,  a  vigorous 
Latin  literature  was  already  growing  up  at  Carthage.  It  was  not 
yet  quite  ready,  however,  to  enter  upon  its  wider  career.'^ 

African  rhetors  and  jurisconsults  had  begun  to  invade  Rome,  no 
doubt,  from  the  days  of  the  Caesars.  Lucius  Annaeus  Comutus  of 
Leptis,  for  example,  taught  the  Stoic  philosophy  at  Rome  under 
Claudius  and  Nero,  and  earned  the  loving  admiration  of  pupils  Hke 
Lucan,  and  above  all  Persius,  whose  panegyrics  of  his  dear  master 
quite  touch  the  stars. '^  Shortly  afterward  his  fellow-countryman, 
the  rhetorician  Septimius  Severus,  won  equal  affection  and  praise 
from  pupils  as  well  worth  having,  such  as  Statins  and  Martial.  He 
is  said  to  have  acquired  a  perfection  in  the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue 
(as  it  was  spoken  in  Rome — that  "  native  speech  of  the  Quirites  "  which 
Apuleius  professes  to  have  found  beyond  his  reach),'"*  to  which  his 
imperial  descendants  could  never  attain.  At  least  Statius  declares 
of  the  rhetorician  that  no  one  would  have  beUeved  he  had  drawn 
his  origin  from  barbarous  Leptis  or  had  passed  his  youth  away  from 
the  colHnes  of  Romulus,  and  greets  him  as  an  ItaHan  of  the  ItaUans, 
to  whose  appearance  and  speech,  or  even  mental  habits,  clung  not 
the  least  taint  of  provincial  ways.'^  It  is  recorded  of  the  emperor, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  he  never  learned  to  speak  Latin  without  a 
strong  Punic  accent,  and  of  his  sister  that,  when  she  came  to  visit 
him  at  Rome,  he  was  constrained  to  send  her  back  to  Leptis  because 
of  the  mortification  her  abominable  Latinity  caused  him.'^  Only  a 
little  later  the  place  that  had  been  filled  by  Severus  was  occupied  by 
another  African,  P.  Annius  Florus,  a  man  of  apparently  indefinitely 

1°  Hilgenfeld,  von  Gebhardt,  Harnack  (1893). 

"  Monceaux,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  83. 

"  Cf.  Norden,  Die  antike  Kiinstprosa,  Vol.  II,  pp.  594,  597. 

13  Cf.  Oldsmith,  The  Religion  0}  Plutarch,  p.  53. 

14  At  the  beginning  of  the  Metamorphoses  (the  Quiritium  indigenam  sermonem). 
^s  Sil.,  iv,  5,  45:  Non  sermo  poenus,  non  habitus  tihi,  \  Externa  non  mens:  Ilalus, 

Ilalus. 

^(>  Spartianus,  Sever.,  15  and  19. 


AFRICA  AND  CHRISTIAN  LATIN  LITERATURE  99 

less  genius,  but  of  no  less  lofty  reputation.  The  combined  careers 
of  these  celebrated  teachers  cover  the  period  from  Claudius  to  Hadrian; 
and  meanwhile  the  Africans  had  conquered  for  themselves  also  the 
leading  place  in  the  more  serious  study  of  law.  Hadrian's  great 
jurist,  Salvius  Julianus,  the  author  of  "the  perpetual  edict,"  was 
from  Hadrumetum;  the  high  tradition  which  he  estabhshed  was 
carried  on  by  his  pupil,  Sextus  Caecilius  Africanus,  likewise  an  African ; 
while  he  found  no  unworthy  rival  in  Pactumeius  Clemens  from 
Cirta.'7 

All  this  was,  however,  but  the  prelude  of  what  was  to  come.  The 
real  hegemony  of  Africa  in  Latin  letters  begins  only  in  the  second 
third  of  the  second  Christian  century.  It  was  from  Spain,  not  from 
Africa,  that  in  the  first  Christian  age  new  life  flowed  in  to  invigorate 
the  languishing  stem  of  Latin  Hterature.  Seneca,  Lucan,  Tacitus, 
Martial — these  are  all  Spanish  names;  and  the  whole  literature  of 
the  period  bears  the  stamp  of  the  Spanish  character.  But  as  the 
middle  of  the  second  century  approaches,  the  supremacy  passes 
finally  from  Spain,  and  what  to  the  Roman  ear  seemed  the  stridor 
punicus^^  began  to  fill  the  world.  No  name  of  the  first  repute,  it 
must  be  confessed,  adorns  the  annals  of  secular  Latin  literature  under 
the  sway  of  African  influence;  it  is  a  period  of  literary  decay.  At 
the  opening  of  the  period  the  chief  writers  that  meet  the  eye  are  Cor- 
nelius Fronto,  the  tutor  and  friend  of  Marcus  AureUus,  and  Sulpitius 
ApoUinaris,  the  grammarian,  about  whom  gathered  a  crowd  of 
fellow-Africans,  among  them  perhaps  Aulus  Gellius  himself,  while 
off  in  Carthage  Apuleius  was  introducing  a  new  genre  in  literary 
form.  Its  single  poet  worthy  of  the  name,  Dracontius,  sings  the  swan- 
song  of  the  African  influence  at  the  end  of  the  period,  at  the  court  of 
the  Vandals.  Mommsen  reproaches  it  with  not  having  produced 
throughout  the  whole  of  its  dominance  "a  single  poet  deserving  to 
be  remembered," '9  and  its  prose  tradition  was  but  little  higher.  The 
only  great  poet  of  the  age — Claudian — was,  like  the  African  Terence 

17  Cf.  Monceaux,  Les  Ajricains,  pp.  74,  345,  346. 

'S  The  phrase  is  Jerome's  (Epist.,  130,  5),  but  he  refers  by  it  to  the  voice  and 
speech,  not  to  a  hterary  manner.  On  "African  Latin"  cf.  F.  Sketch  in  Hinneberg,  as 
cited,  pp.  433,  434. 

^9  Roman  Provinces,  E.  T.  Vol.  II,  p.  373. 


lOO  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  THEOLOGY 

of  an  earlier  time,  one  of  those  happy  accidents,  sprung  from  other 
blood  and  formed  in  other  molds.  The  most  important  prose- 
writer  of  the  age — Ammonius  Marcianus — was  also  Greek  in  origin. 
The  mass  of  writers  who  jostle  each  other  through  these  years  were 
mostly  "schoolmasters  turned  authors,"  over  all  whose  work  the 
''trail  of  scholasticism"  runs;  rhetors  who,  though  become  writers, 
still  mouthed  it  in  their  pages  with  balanced  cadences  and  elaborately 
constructed  rhythms,  in  which  the  sense  too  often  was  neglected  in 
straining  after  effects  of  sound.  It  is  thus  not  a  very  attractive  litera- 
ture which  Africa  contributed  to  the  secular  Latin  world.  But  for 
a  period  of  at  least  two  centuries  it  constituted  all  the  Latin  literature 
that  existed;  and  throughout  this  whole  period  it  not  only  flourished 
luxuriantly,  but  commanded  the  unbounded  admiration  of  men. 
To  those  who  lived  under  its  spell  it  did  not  suffer  in  comparison 
with  the  literature  of  the  Augustan  age  itself.  Septimius  Severus 
may  have  made  it  the  reproach  of  his  rival  aspirant  to  the  purple 
(Clodius  Albinus,  an  African  like  himself — and  like  Apuleius)  that 
he  found  in  the  Golden  Ass  his  favorite  reading;"  but  this  suggests 
an  exceptional,  perhaps  not  even  an  honest,  judgment.  The  men  of 
the  time  sincerely  admired  the  literature  of  the  time  and  felt  them- 
selves living  in  the  heyday  of  literary  art.  Carthage  seemed  to  them 
to  have  earned  a  right  to  the  title  of  second  mother  of  Latin  letters. 
Even  Augustine,  with  the  utmost  naivete,  declares  that  the  two  cities, 
Rome  and  Carthage,  stand  side  by  side  as  sources  of  the  stream  of 
Latin  letters.^'  The  bad  poets  of  the  day  looked  upon  one  another 
as  touching  the  summit  of  Hterary  accomplishment.  "  This  at  least  is 
certain,  Luxorius,"  said  one  to  another  with  charming  directness,  "  you 
have  outdone  all  the  ancients.""  In  one  of  his  delightful  letters, ^^ 
ApoUinaris  Sidonius  tells  us  that,  if  a  manuscript  were  found  lying  by 
a  lady's  chair,  it  was  pretty  sure  to  prove  to  be  a  treatise  on  religion ; 
if  by  a  gentleman's,  on  eloquence.  He  adds:  "I  do  not  forget  that 
there  are  some  writings  of  equal  literary  excellence  in  both  branches, 

2°  Capitol.,  Vita  Alb hii,  12  (cf.  Boisier,  U Ajrique  romaine,  p.  241). 
^^  Ep.,  118,  9,  near  end  (Migne,  XXXIII,  468).     Cf.  Norden,  Kunstprosa,  Vol. 
II,  592;    Crutwell,  Latin  Literature,  p.  546. 

22  Anthologie  (Riese),  87:  certum  est,  Luxori,  priscos  le  vincere. 

23  ii,  9;  cf.  Hodgkin,  Italy  and  its  Invaders,  Ed.  i,  1880,  Vol.  I,  p.  319. 


AFRICA  AND  CHRISTIAN  LATIN  LITERATURE  lor 

that  Augustine  may  be  paired  off  against  Varro,  and  Prudentius 
against  Horace."  Here,  to  be  sure,  we  are  introduced  to  the  great 
Christian  writers  who  adorned  the  time ;  and  into  their  writings  a  new 
life  had  been  infused,  by  virtue  of  which  a  really  great  literature  was 
produced  under  African  influence.  But  the  main  point  is  neverthe- 
less illustrated:  the  characteristics  of  the  literature  of  the  age  were 
the  characteristics  of  the  age,  and  the  men  of  the  age  found  themselves 
expressed  in  it  and  sincerely  admired  it. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  period  of  African  dominance  that 
Christianity  began  to  find  a  voice  for  itself  in  a  western  tongue.  In 
its  earhest  stages  western  Christianity  had  been  Greek.  With  the 
single  exception  of  that  of  the  African  Victor  (i88  or  189-99),  the 
names  of  all  the  Roman  bishops  up  to  the  death  of  Calhstus  in  223 
are  Greek.  The  earliest  Christian  writers  in  the  West  wrote  in 
Greek — Clement,  Hermas,  Irenaeus,  Hippolytus,  and  their  contem- 
poraries. The  change  came  so  swiftly  that  it  can  scarcely  be  spoken 
of  as  a  transition,  and  the  change  was  wrought  at  the  hands  of  the 
Africans.  Latin  Christian  literature  burst  upon  the  world  with  the 
suddenness  of  a  tropical  sunrise  in  the  burning  tracts  of  TertulHan. 
Jerome  tells  us,  to  be  sure,  that  before  TertulUan,  Victor  and  Apol- 
lonius  wrote  in  Latin.  Such  exceptions,  even  were  they  substantiated, 
would  only  prove  the  rule.  Jerome,  however,  seems  to  be  in  error 
as  regards  Apollonius;  and  the  Uterary  product  of  Victor,  who  was 
himself  an  African,  was  in  any  case  insignificant.  The  learned 
world  was  startled  a  few  years  ago,  it  is  true,  by  the  suggestion  that 
an  interesting  tract,  Against  Gamblers,  which  has  been  preserved 
among  the  works  of  Cyprian,  was  really  the  composition  of  Victor, 
and  in  that  case  probably  the  earliest  Christian  Latin  writing  which  has 
come  down  to  us.  The  suggestion  has  not,  however,  been  verified; 
the  tract  seems  pretty  clearly  post- Cyprian  ic  in  date,  and  although 
its  provenience  cannot  be  said  to  be  determined  with  equal  certainty, 
it  may  very  well  be  African  in  origin.^-*  A  much  more  striking 
exception  would  be  furnished  by  the  Octavius  of  Minucius  FeHx,  who 
also  was  an  African,  could  we  suppose  it,  as  many  do,  to  have  been 
produced  during  the  lifetime  of  Fronto,  say  about  181  A.  d.     This 

24  Harnack  {Chronologic,  Vol.  II,  pp.  370-87)  now  allows  its  post-Cyprianic  origin 
but  still  holds  it  to  be  Roman. 


I02  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  THEOLOGY 

much-admired  tract  is  written  with  all  of  Fronto's  "virtuosity"  in 
the  handling  of  the  Latin  language,  and  is  crowded  with  archaisms, 
bookish  allusions  to  the  poets — Vergil,  Horace,  Lucretius — and 
reminiscences  of  the  old  Greek  and  Latin  Sophists.  Its  true  char- 
acter is  given  it,  however,  by  its  skill  in  the  new  sophistical  artifices 
which  characterize  all  the  Hterature  of  the  African  period,  and  which 
it  never  relaxes  even  in  the  warmest  glow  of  its  Christian  indignation. 
It  certainly  would  fitly  enough  stand  at  the  head  of  that  series  of 
great  but  somewhat  artificially  written  Christian  writings  which  are 
the  glory  of  the  Latin  literature  of  the  African  period,  of  which  it 
would  be  an  unworthy  example  only  in  its  somewhat  traditional 
contents  and  its  undeveloped  theology.  But  every  internal  considera- 
tion justifies  Jerome's  assignment  of  its  origin  to  a  period  later  than 
TertuUian.^s  Jn  whatever  way  such  questions  may  be  settled,  how- 
ever, in  any  event  the  great  stream  of  Christian  Latin  literature  takes 
its  rise  in  the  height  of  the  African  influence,  and  in  any  event  from 
apparently  African-born  writers;  and  thus  in  any  event  it  must  be 
accounted  the  gift  of  Africa  to  the  world.  If  we  see  its  rise,  as 
apparently  we  must,  in  Tertullian,  we  add  merely  that  this  Christian 
African  literature  not  only  rose  out  of  African  influences  and  through 
African-born  agents,  but  sprang  up  also  on  African  soil. 

From  the  end  of  the  second  century  Christianity  was  the  ferment 
of  all  cultural  and  literary  development,  and  the  poverty  in  great 
names  of  the  secular  literature  of  the  period  is  offset  by  the  richness 
in  them  of  the  Christian  literature,  from  its  very  origin.  For  the 
stream  of  Christian  Latin  literature  does  not  begin  as  a  little  rivulet 
which  only  gradually  grows  to  a  river;  it  bursts  out  ^.t  its  source  as  a 
great  flood.  Its  earhest  examples  set  for  it  at  once  the  highest  of 
traditions.  Their  authors  were  of  course,  however,  men  of  their  times, 
imbued  with  the  literary  taste  of  their  times.  There  are  exceptions 
among  them,  no  doubt,  as  there  are  exceptions  among  the  secular 
writers  of  the  period.  Lactantius  is  a  shining  exception.  The  noble 
calmness  of  his  truly  classical  Latinity  knows  no  rival  in  the  literary 
product  of  his  day,  whether  in  Christian  or  heathen  circles.  ^^  Hilary 
of  Poictiers  is  an  equally  shining  exception;  and  indeed  the  writers 

25  So  Massebieau,  Monceaux,  Neumann,  Funk,  Harnack. 

26  Cf.  Norden,  Kunstprosa,  Vol.  II,  p.  582. 


TERTULLIAN. 

^ 

rHE  Theology  op  Tertullian.  By  Robert 
E.  Roberts,  (The  Epworth  Press. 
10s.  6d.  net.) 

IiSTORY  AST)  Literature  of  Christiaxity 
from  Tertullian  to  Boethius.  By 
Pierre  de  Labriolle.     Translated  from 

,  the  French  by  Herbert  Wilson.  (Kegan 
Paul.     25s.  net.) 

It  has   recently  been  said  that  Tertullian 

as  a  great  prose  writer,  but  hardly  a  writer 

f  Latin  prose.     If  by  Latin  prose  be  meant 

le    excellent    imitations    of    select    authors 

hich  classical  scholars  at  the  elder  univer- 

ties  submit  to  the  criticism  of  their  tutors, 

vis  adverse  judgment  may  stand.        But    if 

srlullian's    Latinity    be    impugned,    the    ex- 

lusiivc  study  of  his  language  by  Professor 

E.    B.   Mayor,   who  knew  Latin   when   ha 

w  it,  can  be  called  in  evidence.     Tertullian 

ly  have  been  provincial,  but  he  belonged 

a   province   where   the  sheer   Latinity    of 

autus  and  Sallust  survived,  vigorous  beyond 

,3  measure  of  that  which  hacl  been  refined 

Cicero   and    Hortensius  ;     he   was   at   the 

nc  time  daring  in  novelty,  rather  too  prone 

Grascisms     and     invented     phrases  ;      he 

w  the  language  of  the  tribunals  and  of  the 

ions,  precise  on  the  one  side,  but  on  the 

er  side  rich  in  imagery. 


I 


THE   DISTRIBUTION    OF   LIFE. 

BE  CARLE  SowEUBV.    ]^l^^^«^^  Mancluuia 

The  Mammals  and  l>ircis 

(Tientsin  Press.)  ^^    ^^    Boyson 

S--Z;rrSiHora5s.net.) 

M.   Sowerb/s  a^nt^^f  ^    --f- 
Manehmia,   ^J;lch  Jho    ^va^  ^^^^p^,,,  « 

on  June  7,   U^f^-    ^^pTneimrian  fauna  m  io- 
his  account  of  the  Manchur  ^^^^^^^^^ 

volumes  ;   and   aUhough   it  ^^  ,etc  1 

have  gained  h«d  ^e  bee.,  ab  e  ^  .^  ^^^^ 

exploration  of  tl^^^^^K  ;'-  ^^.^r  inaccessil 
collation  of  records  f'^n^J^^^^,  has  made 
Russian  and  Germm    somce^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^^^.^^ 

the  most  complete  ^^1""'%  he  has  aUea 
English-speaking  readers     AS  ^^^.^^^ 

pointed  out,  the  ^Jf^f^'^he  neighbour 
Itrongly  contrasted  -^j^^^t^-es  ^ood  reas 
area  of  North  China ;  and  ho  .  ^.^^  ^ein 
for   contending  that  so   lar   iro  ^^^. 

Sstinct  faunal  ^f-^^^,    L  wild  lif' 

«  borderland    ^'^^  c^an^^^n  es^^^ 

different  tracls.  /^"^  P°;^  land-bridge  ao 


AFRICA  AND  CHRISTIAN  LATIN  LITERATURE  103 

of  Aquitaine  at  large  were  justly  famous  for  their  command  of  the 
"Roman  speech."  No  Latin  of  any  age  is  superior  in  chaste  elegance 
to  that  of  Hilary  at  his  best.^'  But,  taken  as  a  whole,  the  same  false 
taste  ruled  the  great  Christian  which  ruled  the  small  heathen  writers  of 
the  age.  The  finically  embroidered  diction  which  had  been  introduced 
by  the  Greek  Sophists,  Gorgias,  Hegesias,  Himerios — the  so-called 
Asianism  or  '"new  rhetoric" — had  conquered  also  the  Latin  world. ^^ 
As  it  has  been  pungently  expressed,  ^^  the  reigning  canon  of  beauty  in 
style  had  become  that  "article  of  faith  of  all  barbarism,  that  a  man 
must  tattoo  himself  in  order  to  be  handsome."  Apuleius  remains, 
of  course,  the  supreme  example.  In  him  an  incredible  bombast 
unites  with  a  painful  fastidiousness:  alhterations,  paronomasiae, 
assonances,  homoioteleuta,  balanced  clauses,  rhythmic  terminations, 
and  rhymed  endings,  simply  riot  through  his  pages,  in  which,  as  it  has 
been  justly  said,  "a  style  celebrates  its  orgies  which  has  degenerated 
into  a  mere  bacchanalian  dance  of  phonetics."3°  But  it  was  not  for 
nothing  that  the  great  Christian  writers  of  the  African  period  had 
all  been  rhetors  before  they  became  theologians,  and  had  received 
their  rhetorical  training  in  the  "new  style."  There  is  nothing 
in  the  way  of  virtuosity  in  the  use  of  language  in  Apuleius  which 
may  not,  without  much  searching,  be  matched  in  TertuUian.  All 
the  fiery  impetuosity  of  that  ardens  vir  did  not  carry  him  beyond 
the  fashionable  artifices ;  and  at  his  worst — his  contemporaries  would 
have  said  at  his  best — his  style  is  indistinguishable  from  that  of 
Apuleius.  The  same  is  true,  each  in  his  measure,  of  all  the  other 
authors  of  the  period.  It  is  true  of  Minucius  Fehx  and  Cyprian, 
though  of  course  the  graceful  elegance  native  to  the  one,  and  the 
unctious  suavity  of  the  other,  ^^  modify  their  use  of  the  rhetorical 
devices  common  to  all.  It  is  true  of  Ambrose  and  of  the  Gallic 
writers  who  adorn  the  age  at  a  Uttle  later  time.  It  is  true  even  of 
Jerome,  whose  taste  was  markedly  pure  and  who  knew  how  to  recog- 
nize the  "Asian  tumor"  in  others,  and  unsparingly  ridiculed  the 
contemporary  fashion.     Augustine  himself,  who  even  in  the  matter 

27  Ibid.,  p.  583.  29  By  Bernays. 

=8  Ibid.,  p.  587.  30  Norden,  loc.  cit. 

31  Beatus  Cyprianus,  says  Cassiodorus,  velul  oleum  decurrens  in  omnem  suavitatem. 
Norden  says  he  is  the  first  Latin  writer  who  has  unction. 


I04  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  THEOLOGY 

of  style  towers  so  much  above  his  age  as  almost  to  redeem  it,  never- 
theless never  emancipates  himself  from  the  traditions  of  his  rhetorical 
school.  In  his  greater  v\^orks,  where  the  gravity  of  the  matter  absorbs 
his  attention,  the  wretched  artifices,  especially  word-plays,^ ^  which 
constitute  the  signature  of  the  "new  style,"  may  retire  somewhat  into 
the  background.  But  they  are  absent  from  none  of  his  composi- 
tions, and  in  his  more  popular  pieces,  where  he  is  most  at  his  ease 
and  is  thinking  more  of  the  effect  he  is  producing,  they  obtrude 
themselves  in  painful  abundance.  He  knew  well  enough  the  beauty 
of  simplicity,  but,  as  he  himself  would  have  said,  jacilius  est  errorem 
definere  quam  finere.  His  pages  are  studded  with  such  turns  of  speech 
as  cetera  onerant,  non  honorant;^^dic  "  habeo,^  '  sed  "  ah  eof'^^  o  munde 
immunde;^^  est  enim  severitas  quasi  saeva  veritas.^^  If  Apuleius  can 
scarcely  be  opened  without  exposing  the  most  astonishing  examples 
of  elaborate  trifling  with  sequences  of  sound,  and  in  the  matter  of 
balanced  clauses  and  rhyming  endings  at  least — "  the  sprightly  dance 
of  the  Asian  cola,"  as  it  has  been  called^' — Tertulhan  even  surpasses 
Apuleius,  ft»4  Augustine  will  provide  us  with  examples  of  precisely  the 
same  artifices  of  which  we  must  at  least  acknowledge  that  Apuleius 
and  Tertulhan  might  have  envied  him  them.  Apuleius  may  give 
us  such  sequences  as  this : 

aut    ara    floribus    redimita, 
aut   quercus   cornibus   onerata, 
aut  fagus  pellibus  coronata. 

Tertulhan  may  provide  us  with  untold  numbers  such  as  this : 

tot  pernicies 
quot  et  species, 
tot  dolores 
quot  et  colores;^* 

or,  taking  a  wider  sweep,  as  this : 

quam  nee  nationibus  comparaverat, 
ne  consuetudine  deputaretur, 

32  Cf.  Hoppe,  Syntax  und  Slil  des  Terlullians,  p.  149:  "Augustine  makes  use  of 
all  the  artificial  devices  which  TertuUian  employs,  and  of  the  '  play  on  words'  in  even 
greater  measure  than  Tertulhan." 

33  Sermo,  85,  5 :  h  is  silent  in  Augustine's  mouth. 

i^Sermo,  94,  14.  a  Sermo,  105,  6.  3^ Sermo,  171,  5. 

37  Usener:  der  rasche  Tanz  asianischer  Kola.  i^Scorp.,  I. 


AFRICA  AND  CHRISTIAN  LATIN  LITERATURE  105 

quam  absens  judicarat 

ne  spatium  reus  lucaretur, 
quam  advocata  etiam  domini  virtute  damnaverat, 

ne  humana  sententia  videretur.^^ 

But  it  is  Augustine  who  writes,  almost  as  if  by  force  of  habit,  thus : 

eo  nascente  superi  novo  honore  claruerunt, 
quo  moriente  inferi  novo  timore  tremuerunt, 
quo  resurgente  discipuli  novo  amore  exarserunt, 
quo  ascendente  coeli  novo  obsequio  patuerunt.*" 

Such  flowers  of  speech,  with  their  elaborate  assonance,  balance, 
rhythm,  and  rhyme,  cannot,  of  course,  be  transplanted  into  other 
tongues.  Take,  however,  only  the  one  item  of  rhyme,  and  how  would 
it  sound  in  English  prose  to  be  constantly  tripping  upon  passages 
like  this:  "When  He  was  born,  to  heaven  a  new  honor  was  given; 
when  away  he  was  torn,  all  hell  with  new  terror  was  riven ;  when  He 
arose,  the  disciples  with  new  love  were  affected ;  when  He  ascended, 
the  angels  were  to  new  service  subjected"  P"*'  It  strikes  us  with  a 
shock  to  observ^e  that  the  very  martyrs  in  the  mines  cannot  return  their 
thanks  for  supphes  sent  by  charity  to  their  necessities  without  lapsing 
into  the  literary  preciosity  of  the  times. ^^ 

Despite  their  common  preoccupation  with  such  rhetorical  de\'ices, 
however,  the  greatest  possible  difference  in  tone  and  spirit  obtains 
between  the  heathen  and  Christian  writers  of  the  period.     In  the 

39  Pud.,  14  fin.     Many  other  examples  are  given  by  Hoppe,  op.  cil.,  p. 166. 

*°Sermo,  190,  2,  ad  fin.  (Migne,  XXXVIII,  1028).  Norden,  Kunslprosa,  adduces 
other  examples. 

41  English  Euphuism  (like,  no  doubt,  Spanish  Guevaraism  before  it)  which,  as 
Mr.Morley  (English  Writers,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  316  f.)  points  out,  was  "an  outcome  of  the 
revival  of  the  study  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero,  and  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  works 
upon  the  art  of  speaking,"  can  scarcely  be  looked  upon  as  anything  else  than  a  revival 
of  Asianism.  John  Lyly  would  not  be  inaptly  described  as  an  English  Apuleius; 
and  Dr.  Landmann  's  description  of  his  style  would  stand  very  well  for  a  characteriza- 
tion of  that  of  Apuleius:  "a  peculiar  combination  of  antithesis  with  alliteration,  asson- 
ance, rhyme,  and  play  upon  words,  a  love  for  the  conformity  and  correspondence  of 
paralled  sentences,  and  a  tendency  to  accumulate  rhetorical  figures,  such  as  climax, 
the  rhetorical  question, "etc.  (Der  Euphuismus,  etc.,  Giessen,  1881).  Some  interesting 
remarks  on  what  may  similarly  be  thought  "the  Asian  rhetoric"  in  Arabic  prose — the 
so-called  Al  Saj'a  or  Al-Badi'a — may  be  found  in  Lady  Burton's  edition  of  R.  F. 
Burton's  Arabian  Nights,  I,  xiv;  VI, 338. 

42Cyprian's  letters,  Ep.  77,  3. 


io6  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  THEOLOGY 

case  of  the  one  this  bizarre  rhetoric  entered  into — or,  perhaps  we  may 
say,  constituted — the  very  essence  of  their  work;  they  wrote  in  a  true 
sense  for  its  sake.  In  the  case  of  the  other,  it  was  a  mere  accident 
of  form,  marring  the  dignity  of  tlieir  presentation  indeed,  but  never 
conceahng  the  earnestness  of  their  purpose,  or  destroying  the  vigor 
or  inherent  eloquence  of  their  product.  In  other  words,  Latin  litera- 
ture was  fast  sinking  to  the  level  of  a  mere  rhetorical  exercise  when 
Christianity  entered  in  with  regenerating  breath  and  once  more 
recalled  it  to  serious  concernment  with  the  matter  of  discourse.  We 
may  perceive  the  revolution  even  in  the  brutal  pages  of  Amobius,  or 
perhaps  we  may  more  pungently  say  even  in  the  polished  periods  of 
Minucius  Felix.  We  do  not  need  to  go  beyond  TertuUian,  however, 
to  observe  the  whole  contrast  in  its  most  striking  manifestation.  We 
have  noted  how  deeply  imbued  TertulHan  was  with  the  artificial 
rhetoric  of  the  day.  His  treatise  on  The  Mantle ^  for  example,  almost 
outdoes  Apuleius  himself  and  has  been  described  as  simply  "an 
oratorical  debauch  in  which  are  prodigally  expended  all  the  resources 
of  rhetorical  invention."''^  Nevertheless,  TertuUian  never  made 
rhetorical  effect  his  chief  object  in  writing,  nor  was  the  machinery 
of  rhetorical  artifice,  however  freely  employed,  ever  permitted  to  put 
shackles  upon  either  his  thought  or  his  passion.  He  even  speaks 
shamefacedly  of  lapses  into  rhetorical  devices  as  unfitting  in  the 
bearers  of  such  a  message  as  Christians  had  committed  to  them,  and 
due  merely  to  the  exigences  of  debate.  "We  rhetoricise,  just  as  we 
philosophize,"  he  says,  "only  on  the  provocation  of  the  heretics. "''^ 
Despite  its  frequent  artificiaUty  of  form,  accordingly,  his  speech 
remained  ever  a  speech  of  flame,  and  before  the  intense  energy  of  his 
expression  the  rhetorical  framework  continually  gives  way.  It  has 
been  justly  pointed  out'''*  that  the  Latin  language  was  never  carried  to 
a  higher  pitch  of  passionate  expression,  or  made  the  vehicle  of  a 
fuller,  richer,  or  more  poignant  emotional  life,  than  in  the  hands  of 
this  most  subjective  and  individual  of  all  Latin  writers.  He  strains 
the  capacity  of  the  language  to  the  breaking- point  in  his  determination 

42  Boissier,  L'Ajrique  romaine,  259. 

43  Z)e  res.  earn.,  5:  ita  nos  rhetoricari  quoque  provocant  heretici,  sicut  etiam  philo- 
sophari. 

44  Norden,  Kunstprosa,  Vol.  II,  pp.  610,  611;  cf.  Hoppe,  op.  cit.,  p.  2. 


AFRICA  AND  CHRISTIAN  LATIN  LITERATURE  107 

to  give  full  vent  to  the  intensity  of  his  feehngs.  With  the  utmost 
license  he  coins  new  words,  imposes  new  senses  upon  old  ones,  crowds 
Latin  forms  into  Greek  idioms,  elevates,  intensifies  the  implications 
of  terms  and  constructions  alike — until  there  emerges  from  his  hands 
what  is  really  a  new  tongue,  that  Christian  Latin  of  which  he  more 
than  any  other  single  author  is  the  creator.-'s  It  was  a  veritable 
miracle  that  he  wrought,  and  we  need  not  wonder  that  it  was  not 
accomplished  without  some  violence  and  recklessness.  In  a  period  of 
decadence  the  Latin  tongue  acquired  in  the  hands  of  this  hnguistic 
genius  a  power  of  adaptation  in  giving  expression  to  ideas  hitherto 
imkno\\'Ti  to  it,  such  as  it  scarcely  was  able  to  exhibit  in  its  most  flexible 
period,  when  Cicero  sought  to  popularize  in  it  the  Greek  philosophy. '♦^ 
Speaking  broadly.  Christian  hterature  differentiated  itself  from 
the  heathen,  indeed,  precisely  as  the  literature  of  content  from  the 
literature  of  form.  The  heathen  hterature  of  the  time  was  ruled 
by  the  maxim  of  art  for  art's  sake.  The  maxim  of  the  Christians 
was  truth  for  truth's  sake.  In  theory  at  least,  the  Christians  were 
ready  to  carry  their  distinctive  principle,  indeed,  to  absurd  extremes. 
From  the  first  they  defended  the  proposition  that  a  sober  and  homely 
dress  alone  comported  with  the  great  truths  they  had  to  communicate; 
and  they  professed  fear  lest  the  meretricious  charms  of  form  should 
distract  attention  from  the  tremendous  import  of  the  matter.  Here 
too  the  only  suitable  adornment  seemed  to  them  to  be  the  inner 
adornment  inherent  in  the  beauty  of  naked  truth.  It  was  their  con- 
stant contention,  therefore,  as  Gregory  the  Great  expresses  it  in  his 
unmeasured  way,'*'  that  it  were  an  indecency  to  straiten  the  words 
of  the  heavenly  oracle  even  under  the  rules  of  Donatus.  Like  the 
Master  himself,  they  urged,  the  message  should  be  without  form  or 
comeliness.  So  fanatical  a  theory,  of  course,  could  not  be  reduced 
to  practice;  and  they  who  gave  it  its  most  extreme  expression,  like 
Gregory  the  Great  himself — whose  whole  rhetorical  form  is  cast  in 

45  Cf.  Harnack,  Chronologie,  Vol.  I,  p.  667,  and  Norden  in  Hinneberg,  p.  389. 
The  latter  says  :  "His  style  is  without  moderation  hke  his  nature;  he  breaks  through 
the  traditional  forms  instead  of  adjusting  himself  to  them;  but  it  is  just  in  this  that 
his  greatness  Hes  in  this  sphere  too;  he  was  the  creator  of  a  Lat!n  ecclesiastical  lan- 
guage." 

46  So  Hoppe,  op.  cit.,  p.  2. 

47  Moral.,  praef.  I. 


io8  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  THEOLOGY 

the  Asian  mold — were  the  last  to  attempt  to  put  it  into  practice. 
Men  wrote,  if  they  wrote  at  all,  to  be  read ;  and  to  be  read  they  needed 
to  write  more  or  less  in  accordance  with  the  canons  of  the  art  they 
affected  to  despise.  At  first,  no  doubt,  a  real  simplicity  of  speech 
came  naturally  to  the  hps  of  Christians.  The  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  and  the  Apostolic  Fathers  are  comparatively  innocent  of 
conscious  rhetorical  art,"*^  and  the  popular  sermons,  particularly  in  the 
West,  preserved  for  a  considerable  period  more  or  less  reminiscence 
of  this  early  relative  stylelessness.  But  already  the  Apologists, 
addressing  heathen  rather  than  Christian  readers,  began  inevitably 
to  write  more  after  the  fashion  in  vogue  among  the  heathen.  After 
them  the  barriers  were  broken  down;  and  every  device  known  to 
heathen  rhetorical  art  became  the  ordinary  medium  of  expression 
for  Christians  also.  These  unmeasured  expressions  of  contempt  for 
form  which  characterize  the  whole  series  of  Christian  writers  must 
be  read,  therefore,  only  as  a  natural  reaction  of  mind  against  the 
equally  unmeasured  riot  of  rhetoric  which  marked  the  times.  And 
the  reaction  went  only  far  enough  to  supply  a  much-needed  correc- 
tive of  the  rage  for  superficial  ornament;  and  secured  only  that  the 
matter  should  not  be  lost  in  the  form.  Its  effect  was  not  to  separate 
the  Christian  from  the  heathen  as  a  mass  of  formless  writers  standing 
over  against  the  formed.  Its  effect  was  only  to  infuse  earnestness  of 
purpose  into  their  literary  product,  to  recall  attention  from  the  exter- 
nals of  speech  to  its  burden,  and  to  save  Latin  literature  from  rotting 
down  into  a  mere  idle  song  of  an  empty  day. 

Certainly  no  personality  could  be  imagined  better  fitted  than  Ter- 
tuUian,  by  training,  natural  gifts  and  temperament,  to  break  out  the 
channel  for  this  new  literature  of  substance  in  the  West.  In  him  Chris- 


48  How  important  it  is  to  exercise  caution  in  speaking  thus  even  of  the  New 
Testament  writers  may  be  learned  from  F.  Blass,  Die  Rythmen  der  asianischen  und 
romischen  Kunstprosa  (Leipzig,  1905),  in  which  he  endeavors  to  show  that  not  only 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  but  the  epistles  of  Paul  are  written  under  the 
rules  of  the  Asian  cola  (cf.  also  his  Textkritisches  zu  den  Korintherhriejcn  in 
Schlatter  and  Liitgerts  Beitriige  zur  Forderung  christl.  Theologie,  Vol.  X,  No.  i  [1906],  pp. 
51-63;  and  J.  Draseke,  in  Zeitschrijt  fur  ■wisse?isch.  Theologie,  1906,  Vol.  I,  pp.  i33f.). 
On  the  other  hand,  compare  the  review  of  Blass  by  A.  Deissmann  in  the  Theologische 
Literaturzeitimg,  April  16,  1906,  No.  8,  pp.  23if.  (also,  more  briefly  in  the  Theolog- 
Rundschau,  Vol.  IX,  No.  5  [June,  1906],  pp.  22-ji.). 


J 


AFRICA  AND  CHRISTIAN  LATIN  LITERATURE  109 

tian  Latin  literature  attained  the  summit  of  its  greatness  at  a  leap.-*^ 
And  it  was  fortunate  in  the  successors  which  it  gave  to  TertulUan,  who 
worthily  carried  on  the  tradition  begun  by  him.  For  a  full  century, 
they  were  all,  like  TertuUian,  Africans.  Until  the  opening  of  the 
fourth  century,  with  the  exception  of  the  Greek,  Irenaeus,  there 
existed  no  Christian  literature  at  all  in  Gaul;^"  and,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Nova  tian  (who  wrote  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century),  no 
Latin  Christian  literature  in  Italy.  The  great  Christian  writers,  in 
the  meantime — Cyprian,  the  suave  ecclesiastic,  and  Lactantius,  the 
"Christian  Cicero" — and  the  small  ones  too — Minucius  FcHx  the 
elegant,  Arnobius  the  inelegant,  and  Commodian  the  first  Christian 
poet — were  all  aUke  Africans  of  the  Africans.  Nor  did  the  scepter 
depart  from  Africa  when  a  Christian  Latin  literature  had  sprung  up 
elsewhere.  Pannonia  furnished  the  first  Latin  Christian  commentator 
in  Victorinus  of  Petau,  and  the  greatest  of  all  Latin  Christian  men 
of  letters  in  Jerome.  Gaul  in  Hilary  of  Poictiers  gave  the  world  a 
rare  theologian.  Italy  offered  in  iVmbrose  the  typical  ecclesiastical 
statesman  of  all  time.  Spain  in  Juvencus  and  Prudentius  opened 
up  the  stream  of  Christian  Latin  poetry.  But  Africa  still  held  the 
palm  in  philosophy  in  the  person  of  Victorinus,  and  in  Augustine^' 
set  the  capstone  on  Christian  Latin  hterature  as  she  had  laid  its  founda- 
tions in  TertuUian.  From  TertuUian  to  Augustine — the  two  hundred 
years  which  stretch  between  constitute  the  period  of  African  suprem- 
acy in  Christian  Latin  letters — the  names  themselves  mark  the 
supremacy  of  Africa  in  Christian  thought.  They  are  the  names  of 
the  two  greatest  forces  in  western  theology;   and  perhaps  we  should 

49  Cf.  the  somewhat  varying  estimates  of  TertuUian  by  Monceaux  and  Hoppe. 
Norden  (Hinneburg,  p.  38)  strikingly  says:  "  Passion  which  knew  no  measure  is  stamped 
on  his  nature;  hardly  any  other  fanatic  has  known  as  he  knew  how  to  hate;  he  almost 
never  spoke  in  tones  of  love,  that  most  beautiful  fruit  of  Christianity;  therefore  we 
cannot  love  him,  however  much  we  may  admire  him." 

50  Monceaux,  Cyprian,  p.  132. 

51  Norden  (Hinneberg,  p.  391)  appreciatively  says:  "Yes,  we  dare  to  say  it, 
Augustine  was  the  great  poet  of  the  ancient  church,  though,  just  as  little  as  Plato,  does 
he  write  in  verse.  These  two  belong  together  as  the  great  poet-philosophers  of  all 
time."  Cf.  the  eulogy  of  Eucken,  Lebensanschauungen  der  grossen  Denker,  2d  ed.,  pp. 
216  f.,  beginning:  "Augustine  is  the  single  great  philosopher  on  the  basis  of 
Christianity.  All  the  results  of  the  past  and  all  the  suggestions  of  his  own  time  he 
takes  up  into  himself  in  order  to  create  of  them  something  new  again." 


no  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  THEOLOGY 

omit  the  qualification  "western."  What  western  Christianity  is 
today  is  largely  what  Tertullian  and  Augustine  have  made  it — Ter- 
tulUan  as  the  initiator,  Augustine  as  the  consummator.  The  whole 
history  of  Latin  Christian  thought  runs  up  to  and  down  from  Augus- 
tine as  its  water-shed.  All  that  precedes  him  was  preparation  for 
him ;  all  that  follows  him  only  registers  the  effects  of  his  labors.  And 
Augustine  was  but  the  ripe  fruitage  of  African  theology.  After  him 
the  studium  might  well  depart  to  Gaul,  as  it  did,  while  Africa  lay 
crushed  under  the  heel  of  the  Vandal.  ^^  But  it  carried  to  Gaul  with 
it  only  African  problems;  and  the  whole  history  of  Christian  thought 
in  the  West  for  the  next  thousand  years  is  determined  by  the  efforts 
of  the  church  to  adjust  itself  to  African  Augustinianism — efforts 
which  did  not  cease  until  Augustinianism  was  cast  finally  out  of  the 
old  church  and  created  a  church  for  itself  in  what  we  know  as  the 
Reformation.  53 

52  Cf.  Norden,  Kunstprosa,  Vol.  II,  p.  587. 

53  Cf.  Harnack,  History  oj  Dogma,  Vol.  V,  p.  3. 


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no  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  THEOLOGY 

omit  the  qualification  "western."  What  western  Christianity  is 
today  is  largely  what  Tertulhan  and  Augustine  have  made  it — Ter- 
tullian  as  the  initiator,  Augustine  as  the  consummator.  The  whole 
history  of  Latin  Christian  thought  runs  up  to  and  down  from  Augus- 
tine as  its  water-shed.  All  that  precedes  him  was  preparation  for 
him;  all  that  follows  him  only  registers  the  effects  of  his  labors.  And 
Augustine  was  but  the  ripe  fruitage  of  African  theology.  After  him 
the  studnim  might  well  depart  to  Gaul,  as  it  did,  while  Africa  lay 
crushed  under  the  heel  of  the  Vandal. ^^  But  it  carried  to  Gaul  with 
it  only  African  problems;  and  the  whole  history  of  Christian  thought 
in  the  West  for  the  next  thousand  years  is  determined  by  the  efforts 
of  the  church  to  adjust  itself  to  African  Augustinianism — efforts 
which  did  not  cease  until  Augustinianism  was  cast  finally  out  of  the 
old  church  and  created  a  church  for  itself  in  what  we  know  as  the 
Reformation.  53 

52  Cf.  Norden,  Kunstprosa,  Vol.  II,  p.  587. 

53  Cf.  Harnack,  History  oj  Dogma,  Vol.  V,  p.  3. 


